SDNY COURTHOUSE,
August 22 -- A jury returned
guilty verdicts on drugs and
gun charges on August 20
against Ernest Murphy, one of
15 defendants in a
Brooklyn-based narcotics
conspiracy case brought by the
U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York.

It
came after some electronic and
laboratory evidence was
suppressed by Circuit Judge
Richard J. Sullivan, who
rather than re-assigning has
kept many of his criminal
cases in the SDNY.

Now only
two days AFTER the guilty
verdict, Judge Sullivan has
ordered unsealed docket entry
418, including: "Dear Judge
Sullivan: The Government
respectfully submits this
letter as requested by the
Court regarding the
admissibility of certain
testimony of a cooperating
witness (“CW-1”) regarding the
defendant’s request of
coconspirator, Larry Bayer, to
retrieve a firearm the
defendant used in a 2013
shooting and the defendant’s
subsequent threat to assault
Bayer when he refused. The
testimony is necessary to
provide context for a call
(the “Call”) intercepted over
the wiretaps in this case in
February 2018.1 For the
reasons that follow, CW-1
should be permitted to testify
about the 2013 events in the
Government’s case-in-chief at
trial. I. Background At trial,
the Government will introduce
into evidence the Call, which
occurred on February 9, 2018
between coconspirator Tyshawn
Burgess and CW-1. In the Call,
the two discuss, among other
things, the defendant’s
worker, Tyquan Robinson, a/k/a
“Blacko,” and their suspicion
that he is a “rat,” following
his arrest at the stash house
he shared with the defendant
at 672 Decatur Street on
January 5, 2018. They further
discuss that the defendant
threatened to cut
coconspirator Larry Bayer
after he refused to retrieve a
gun for the defendant.
(Burgess: “E was mad at Larry
back in the days for not
picking up a gun when Larry
could’ve did but didn’t do it”
/ Curtis: “I remember that
hell yea he was going to cut
Larry as a matter of fact”).
Burgess then states that the
defendant should “cut”
Robinson. (“Look cut Blacko
niggas kicked in your crib my
nigga you got the cops the
cops went to your house
bro.”). The Government expects
CW-1 to testify, in sum and
substance, that CW-1 learned
in a conversation with
coconspirator Bayer in or
around the summer of 2013,
that the defendant had asked
Bayer to retrieve a firearm,
which had been left in trash
bin, before police found it."
We'll have more on this.

Murphy's
two Criminal Justice Act
lawyers, Patrick Joyce and
Robert Moore, complained to
Judge Sullivan on the eve of
trial that they had only then
been given 16 gigabytes of
audio and video recordings and
lab tests on crack cocaine.

Rather
than delay the trial, Judge
Sullivan ordered much of it
suppressed. During the five
day trial the government still
had a number of NYPD lab
technicians testimony, and
played wiretaps of cell phone
calls and calls from Riker's
Island, whose location in The
Bronx was cited as a basis for
venue in the SDNY.

In the
intercepted calls, there was
discussion of cooking,
packaging and selling crack
cocaine. Several times
reference was made to bringing
firearms to protect turf. A
government slang expert
witness said that "Shaquille"
jersey meant .32 caliber
pistol.

After the
jury got the case, they asked
to examine the drugs. Judge
Sullivan declined to send the
crack and ecstacy pills into
the jury room. Instead the
juror came out and passed them
hand to hand, in evidence
bags, in the jury box.

On the
second day of deliberations
the jury through the Court
Security Officer passed a note
that they wanted all audio
recordings and transcripts.
Judge Sullivan sent them in a
thumb drive and three binders,
as well as a menu to order
lunch.

But barely
an hour later, the jury
returned with its guilty
verdicts. Judge Sullivan
polled them, sent December 6
as the sentencing date -
Murphy faces a minimum of 15
years in prison and perhaps
more - then joined the jurors
for their lunch. The case is US
v. Ernest Murphy,
18-cr-373 (Sullivan).

The US
Attorney's Office, which had
sent senior AUSA Michael D.
Maimin over to try to put out
the fire occasioned by the
late discovery, must have
breathed a sigh of relief.
Inner City Press will continue
to cover this case - and, we
hope, Judge Sullivan's
sentencing in another case he
kept, US v. Rodriguez
(05-cr-221), which the
government is asking, under
seal, to have sealed.
Watch this site.

Judge
Sullivan several times during
the trial pointedly noted that
it is an open courtroom, a
strength of our system, anyone
can just walk in -- except for
US
v. Rodriguez,
apparently, on which Inner
City Press will have more, as
well as on the differences
between the SDNY's and EDNY's
boiler plate plea agreement
letters. Watch this site - and
see
also @InnerCityPress
and the new @SDNYLIVE.

***

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